The present invention is related to computer software, and more particularly to a system and method for presenting data from a variety of sources in a uniform manner.
The amount and sources of information has exploded in recent years. Currently, commercial organizations have many different tools for managing that information. The organization may use a word processing application to create and edit documents, a spreadsheet program to perform calculations, one or more database tools for accessing marketing, employee and other facts, internet tools for accessing the internet and intranet tools for accessing internal company information published to an internal web site. Each tool performs in a different way; it can take a long time to master the tools needed for one""s job. In addition, the learning curve required to obtain rudimentary knowledge in the use of a particular tool can discourage the user from using a tool which may provide information relevant to his or her job.
The introduction of the Internet and Intranet have made the problem worse; there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of data available to the average worker. With that has come the increased burden of how to find relevant information in this deluge of unstructured content. There is no common way to navigate, search, organize, receive, distribute and collaborate on information that is fundamental to the decision making process. Organizations, therefore, often make decisions uninformed by facts which are documented within the organization, but unknown or unavailable to the decision-maker. As business process reengineering and customer relationship management continue to grow, this challenge will intensify.
What is needed is a method of presenting data taken from a variety of sources in a uniform manner. At the same time, what is needed is an interface for accessing such data which is intuitive and user-friendly.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a system and method is described for presenting data from a plurality of sources to a user. The system includes a plurality of information sources, a user interface, content storage and a server connected to the user interface and the content storage. The user interface selects data from one or more of the plurality of information sources to be identified as published content and issues content requests to access data identified as published content. The content storage stores published content and the server manages the content requests received from the user interface. The server includes a repository and a content directory, wherein the repository manages a virtual directory structure associated with published content, wherein the content directory maintains a content directory structure pointing to all published content stored in the content storage and wherein the content directory structure is referenced by the virtual directory structure in the repository.